Climate Change, carbon footprints and meat consumption

Finally I get round to posting on the issue which I started on the TT email list!

I suggested that in the flyer for the Food Fayre the TT group consider the suggestion that one way to cut one's carbon footprint is to reduce one's meat intake. The reason being is that meat production is very energy and resource intensive. It also produces a lot of methane. I don't believe this is an extreme or weirdly radical view to take. Many of the carbon footprint calculators have questions on diet and rate eating meat and fish with a higher carbon footprint.
For example:

http://www.foodcarbon.co.uk/
"Eating a lot of meat, especially beef, results in a higher carbon footprint than eating non meat products. To reduce you carbon footprint, try to cut down on your meat consumption, or switch to a meat with a smaller footprint, like chicken"

WWF http://www.footprint.wwf.org.uk/?gclid=CIWI9qSP5o8CFQ2wQwodoXFHCg
Their first question is:
"How would you best describe your diet?
* Meat and/or fish eater
* Vegetarian
* Vegan"

Questions asked in these Carbon Calculators are asked because they are linked to increase in carbon useage.

For other sources of information about diet and carbon footprint & global warming see:
- article in the Lancet 'Slash global meat consumption to tackle climate change: Lancet paper', 13 September, 2007. At //uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070912/tsc-health-climate-farm-c2ff8aa_1.html
From the article: "Its authors point out that 22 percent of the planet's total emissions of greenhouse gases come from agriculture, a tally similar to that of industry and more than that of transport. ... Livestock production, including transport of livestock and feed, account for nearly 80 percent of agricultural emissions, mainly in the form of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas. ... According to a study published in July by Japanese scientists, a kilo (2.2 pounds) of beef generates the equivalent of 36.4 kilos (80.08 pounds) of carbon dioxide, more than the equivalent of driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on back home."

- article on Carbon Counted website http://www.carboncounted.co.uk/DietAndYourCarbonFootprint.html

- article in the Guardian with reference to recent research on meat and global warming 'Meat production 'beefs up emissions' http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jul/19/climatechange.climatechange

- American article examining the greenhouse gas emissions of a cheeseburger " the greenhouse gas emissions arising every year from the production and consumption of cheeseburgers [in the US] is roughly the amount emitted by 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs." http://www.openthefuture.com/cheeseburger_CF.html

And the UN's Report: 'Livestock, the long shadow' which also documents this situation http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm
From the report: "Other points the report makes are that the world's livestock industry "generates 65 per cent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2" and "that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport."

So it's not just a lot of old hippys saying this! This is the UN, not famed for its revolutionary thinking.

Somehow though, despite the science and evidence, people seem unwilling to hear this evidence.